6/23/2008

Rubber mulch : yay or nay?

At Home Depot I found out they are now selling bagged rubber mulch (by Vigoro) that looks much like the real thing. It's made from 100% recycled tires, but it's dyed to look like red or brown wood mulch.

There's some pros and cons to rubber mulch, but it basically boils down to this: it will take a long, long time to break down. That's a great thing if you are using it on a walkway or playground and have no desire to replace the mulch all the time. That's not a great thing if you want your mulching material to break down over time and add new organic material to your soil.
For playground use, I think it's a pretty good look and doesn't leave much mess. I hate that most local playgrounds are filled with sand, since little Nelumbo Jr. manages to get really dirty. She also thinks it's fun to pour sand on my shoes. I think rubber is a much better alternative. It's much easier to clean off my sneakers, anyway.

15 comments:

Rubber Mulch is a really good thing. I bought it for my playground because my kids told me about it. They played somewhere and they said when they fell it didn't hurt so much. Like you said it leaves them cleaner too! I got it from www.rubberecycle.com and it looks really nice!

I would never use it for landscape gardens here in Portland, because real mulch like barkdust, provides complex sugars and some stuff called glomalin down the line, which condition and improve soil structure.

I would never use rubber mulch. Think about it, it's RUBBER, in your garden! Rubber, in your garden. Does that make sense? For you all who enjoy it in the playgroud, okay; either you have very tame kids who play very gently, or they PLAY! And that means rubber is flying during battle-spray-rubber wars, and getting kicked around while racing bee's at moch speed. It should be all over the yard after about 3 weeks of good playing. Then it's fine rubber time: Mulching lawnmower is spraying rubber chunks everywhere. Watch Ouuuut! Finally, while one the lawn mower subject, grass clipping get into there just like everywhere else. Then it's a mess, so you pass the blower over it (it idle power), and phwooop! More rubber blow into the grass. I've seen it, I've seen it, I've seen it. Did I leave out the hard rains and erosion? Mmmm, dead grass patches? Should have stayed with something a little more natural. I wouldn't recommend landscape stone for a play area, but I think a thick base of mulch is pretty soft. Sorry Rubber Mulch Manufacturers! --Brandon Swisher

I decided to experiment with rubber mulch last summer. There's an area next to our pool that was my "testing ground." Almost 1yr later and I love how the color holds. (Texas sun fades everything!) It does not blow around and the few plants in that area seem fine. There was some 'rubber' smell initially, but that went away. I'm planning to use it around the front of our house this spring.

People, You have to be crazy to use this rubber mulch. They tell you that it will last 12 years. Then what. Think of all of the chemicals that will get leached into the ground and the exposure to the small bits of rubber that slough off of this stuff. I wouldn't use it if it was the last thing on earth. Go ahead and use it. Then , when problems come up , because it was 'easy' and all and kids maybe get sick ( remember CCA treated wood? , that was supposed to be safe), and health issues begin to crop up, then you'll be sorry. This rubber breaks down alright into what.There's an idiot grower in Connecticut that use Styrofoam pellets in his soil mix. And he's a 'noted' grower, kind of famous. Every time it rains, the stuff floats to the top of the ground. Who knows where it goes when that stuff breaks down. Go organic. This stuff is junk.

Sounds like an interesting possibility for an area behind my pool that has had several years of mulching and a ton of good soil under it. It's a pretty big area, 36' x 5' and a solution that lasts a few years sounds good. I wouldn't be looking for it to add organic material, as there is a ton there already. It isn't in a walking area so the rubber mulch would not spread either.

Rubber mulch for playgrounds are safe. It is nontoxic. Rubber mulch inhibits mold and fungus growth that's why it is excellent for drainage and does not compress or flatten out, so water continues to get to plants while controlling weed growth and not attract nesting insects.

Notice all of the negative comments are from people who haven't seen the product in real life, let alone used it.

I have had this on my landscaping for two years, and am expanding it to more of my landscaping this summer.

The rubber looks great and my next door neighbor didn't even know it was rubber until I picked up a few pieces and showed him.

I don't know how it handles weed growth on its own as I've added a weed barrier underneath.

It should also be noted that it doesn't last 12 years as many keep repeating. The color is guaranteed not to fade for 12 years, at which point the color will fade darker as the paint is worn off by the elements and the rubber shows through.

In Oregon on sunny days, the temperature is not too hot for me to walk on, through it will obviously be hotter than mulch which holds water and cools with evaporation.

In my case, since I'm using it in my yard for everywhere there isn't grass, It's been a heaven-send. It hasn't impacted the growth of any of the bushes or fruit trees that it surrounds, and is totally maintenance free.

It doesn't have any metal bits sticking out as one poster surmised it would, and the few pieces that have made it through my mower have just shot into the clippings bag. I can't imagine a mower sharp enough to slice through a 1" thick piece of rubber. Oh, and what I have (Vigoro) has large enough chunks that the mower at idle doesn't even move it, let alone blow it into the grass. Some of it does get kicked around when the kids run through it, but that's going to happen with any kind of bark or woodchip.

I don't use it in my vegetable garden, because it would make tilling the soil impossible and would get all mixed in. But for everything else. It's a pretty nice solution.